Unique fundraiser at The Riv

by jmaloni

Fri, Apr 26th 2013 05:20 pm

The actors, models, designers and artists greet an enthusiastic audience at the show's end.

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It was a fundraiser of the unique
Sunday evening, April 21, as retro clothier Hip Gypsy and a number of
North Tonawanda-area fashion boutiques, art designers and local
merchants staged the second annual "Uniting the Gateway and
Beyond" production to benefit The Historic Riviera Theatre.

Sponsored in part by the North
Tonawanda Downtown Merchants Association and the Lumber City
Development Corp., the fundraiser drew a crowd of roughly 400 to the
historic theater, where visitors were treated to a truly
one-of-a-kind event.

Featured was a wide array of creatively
themed and very tasteful fashions, art, music and theater reflective
of interesting past eras. The 10-part production transformed the
audience from the romance-art "Roaring '20s" and art deco '30s,
to the hippie '60s, the disco '70s, steam-punk-themed '80s, and
leather- and wearable-arts-fashioned '90s to today. And it was
creatively done via themes - romance to gypsy and burlesque, hippie
to disco to punk and leather - complimented by music, fashionable
wear, and a number attractive models and talented actors from the NT
and nearby Buffalo areas.

All said, a different type of evening
staged to benefit the ongoing restorations of a truly unique theater.
(photos by Terry Duffy)